manufactured here — as are also, and to a considerable extent camphor wood articles; all of which is to the employment of much labor. But the cheapness of stonecutting here, the great want of stone ready cut for building in California, a sandy region, promise considerable market in this article, which is readily taken, freight free, as ballast; and cannot be laid down so cheaply from any quarter as from this. At present California imports bricks round Cape Horn from Liverpool and New York.
For the supply of the Californian market, we speculate on the possibility of our having some establishments here; but the inducement to a Chinese to emigrate must be strong. There is a better chance of the dyers and printers of the coarse silks coming here, as the duty on dye stuffs would be saved in a free port.
But the sugar is the most satisfactory export, as the great probable staple of exports from China to the West, and as an article usually exchanged with opium; while the repacking of it here could be a farther advantage to the Colony: Fokien sugar could be laid down here at 10 or 12 per cent cheaper than Canton sugar coming either in coasters, or foreign vessels coming down in ballast.
The Chinese population about to spring up on the west coast of America must not be forgotten, and for these Hongkong will be the Chief Port of supply. Two thousand Chinese have already left China for the West Coast; the dearth of labor felt from Valparaiso to Lima and the Mexican sea will vastly swell this number.
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